"Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do." ~Mark Twain
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing" ~George Bernard Shaw
Play was supported my family members. When I was younger we would play in the neighbor hood, the neighborhood where I was raised was majority family members. We mostly played outside daily if the weather permitted. I can remember sharing one bike throughout the entire neighborhood. Every child rode the same bike. This taught us how to share and respect each other.
Today, most kids play inside rather than outside. Their parents spend a lot more money on gadgets than what my parents spent back in the 1980's. I feel that if the kids now would be more creative with play , it would help their parents save tons of money, and the kids would be a lot more active.
My thoughts on play during my childhood, as a child we had to think harder than the kids today about play. For, example, we had to be very creative, we had to create games and rules for play time. This allowed my parents to use their hard earn money to pay the bills in the household. Today, the kids are causing more stress on their parents about purchasing playstations games, ipads, computers, and cell phones. Which causes some households to be in financial debts.
I agree that parents spend too much money on gadgets and toys that take away all imagination. Even parents who can not afford to buy those gadgets feel pressured to get the "toys" for their children. But it does not have to be that way. My grandchildren, who have parents who do not have any extra money for "gadgets" have learned how to play with very little. My youngest granddaughter was thrilled to receive a box full of art supplies for Christmas one year. I must admit that I have purchased some of these gadgets for my grandchildren, such as video games, but they do not watch TV because their parents can not afford to pay for a dish or cable. They do not miss the TV and they often rent movies from the library and watch them together as a family. There is only one computer in the house, and that belongs to my daughter (I bought that for them also). They have the whole outdoors to play in, and they take advantage of this fact.
ReplyDelete